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Show Lowly Club Needs Funds I To Improve By JOE WILLIAMS (Special to The Telegram) SEBRINQ, ria.. March St How doss It fssl to be the manager of a confirmed last place ball club? Mr. Jimmy Wilson of the Phlladal-Phla Phlladal-Phla Phillies they have been out of the second division only twice , In the last SO ysara aaya It Isn't so tough. ' "For one thing," Mr. Wilson smiles, "I never have to worry about my starting lineup for the world ssrles." For years ths Phillies havs been ' the doormat of the National league. ; Theoretically, they are Just as im- fiortant as any other club In the eague. They have a valuable fran- ehise, exclusive territorial rights, a ball park and a lot of ball players, although they are no more than baseball stooges. ) League Punching Bag More than one ball club has ridden Into the championship over the prostrate. Impotent forma of L the Phillies. They are punching bags for the potential champions. Their record of last year la a con-' con-' vincing example. They won only five games from the Giants whils losing IT to the team that ad-1 ad-1 vsnced to the world series. All ball clubs experience sterile periods, due to the peculiar development develop-ment of young material . But when a ball club like the f Phillies continues in the doldrums year after year, the explanation lies somewhere beyond the element ele-ment of luck. Ia the long history of the i.- league the PhiUlea have won but - - one championship. That waa In i ltl( when Pat Moraa drove them homo In front. The next two years , they did fairly well, after which f, an enduring blight fell over the Icauee. It still exlats. The Phillies ot today are hope-leas. hope-leas. They will have aeeomplished something akin to a minor miracle mira-cle if they climb out of the cellar this season. The answer Is reasonably clear. More ao than ever, baseball today Is big business, and big business de-" de-" mands unlimited funds. The Phillies Phil-lies operate oa a frayed shoestring. shoe-string. Mr. G. P. Nugent, the owner, used to make hooks and eyes for ladies' dresses. Apparently, this Isn't an , Industry that yields millions. Say like the beer Industry la which Colonel Jacob Ruppert ia Interested, or the gum Industry In which young Mr. Wriglsy ha mora than rooting root-ing lntsrest. It would appear that the main Idea of the Phillies is to get by, to make both ends meet The capital is not available for progressive development de-velopment To get a worthwhile ball player the Phillies must be lucky, and when such luck smiles upon them, they must sell him to keep going. Ths financial situation of the club is auch that it can't hope to build. In recent years the Phillies have been forced to sell every standout ball player they owned. They sold Todd, the catcher; Klein, the outfielder; out-fielder; Davis, the pitcher, and Bar-tell Bar-tell and Chloaxa, the infleldera. They also sold Mr. Wilson himself and brought him back later as the managerpossibly man-agerpossibly on the theory that he would understand and be sympathetic. sym-pathetic. The first normal reaction to auch a situation ia Why doesn't somebody some-body do something about it? Well, baseball Is a strange business. It is not always easy to sell a franchise, fran-chise, even a profitable one. Naturally, Nat-urally, it ia much more difficult to sell one like the Phillies or even interest outside capital as an investment in-vestment Need Another Tawkey The history of the baseball bust- neas 1 that such sales art mad to enthusiasts or sporting exhibitionists. exhibi-tionists. On Broadway they call them angels. There is ths case of Mr. Tom Yawkey, for example. He stepped in and bought the Boston Red Sox when that club'a fortunes had fallen to th lowest possible ebb. One of these day a Tom Yawkey may eome along and buy th Phil-lie. Phil-lie. I think It can be accurately stated that Mr. Nugent would be very happy to embrace both th day and th gentleman . . . "But right now w are doing th best we can, we aren't looking for any buyers and if ws can get a break here and there" But th days have passed when club owners could elt back and wait for break. The opposition In the rival business offices Is much too keea. Th Philliea will continue to go along a nondescript outfit, a pushover for the better organised clubs and a well, I might aa well eome out and say it o disgrace to th league. Just to be sur that Mr. Nugent and his earnest young plodders will not think I am taking dead aim at them, I hasten to state they are net alone In their tawdry roles. Conn! Mack's current Athletics may be similarly rated. Likewise the Brooklyn Dodgers and th St. Louis Browns. All of them are ball club without distinction. But Mr. Wilson aaya, managing manag-ing a ball club like th Phillies is "better than working." And he seems to be very happy at th Job-much Job-much happier than Joe McCarthy or Frank Frisch, both of whom are up to their ears In first class material ma-terial . . . "Why should I worry?" asks Mr. Wilson. "I Just try to da th best I can with what I've got" |